Eat your greens, but only if you’re a man

Recently I came across an interesting example of positioning in the Whole Foods at Santa Rosa:

If the authors of this book had gone with the more broad and general title “Green Foods”, they would be playing it safe but also missing out on an interesting market position.

Women make up almost half of the world population, and perhaps more than half of the market for recipe book customers. Aren’t this book’s authors going to miss out on sweet, sweet book royalties from that portion of the population?

Indeed, they are.

But here’s the question I’d bet those authors were asking. It’s the same question you should ask yourself when it comes to narrowing your focus and going after a desirable market position:

How much more strongly will the people I’m focusing on respond if I’m focused ONLY on them?

A strong response to your product or your value proposition from a narrow audience can more than outweigh a more lukewarm response from a broader audience. Especially when we’re talking about high-priced services.

Even in the case of this recipe book, I’d guarantee you that women also buy it as a gift for the men in their lives that they wish were eating more greens.

If you narrow down who you offer your services to, two things will happen.

You’ll get a stronger response to your value proposition from the market vertical or audience you are focusing on.

And in addition, people who are outside that area of focus will still hear about you and give the gift of referring you to potential clients within your area of focus.